Zulgad on sports media: Timberwolves turn back the clock, announce plans to air five games on local over-the-air television
After several years of only being available on cable, satellite and streaming, the Wolves will give a test run to putting a package of games on KARE, meaning no subscription will be required to watch.
The Timberwolves are going back to the future - at least for a handful of games this season.
The team announced Wednesday that KARE (Ch. 11) will carry five weekend home games, starting Dec. 21 against Golden State. The game will be produced and also shown on FanDuel Sports Network North, which is the team’s TV home.
The Wolves haven’t had a package of games available on local, free over-the-air television since 2012. So why now?
“Our No. 1 priority continues to be growing our fan base,” Ryan Tanke, the Wolves’ chief operating officer, said. “We are looking at this as an opportunity to expand our reach and bring Timberwolves basketball to 1.5 million additional homes that may not have access to watch games. Our hope is to get them to tune in, engage with the team and brand and start to create a relationship with those fans.”
The move is a potentially interesting step for the Wolves, who have an opt-out in their contract with Diamond Sports Group after this season. (FanDuel holds the naming rights to the network.) The financial struggles of Regional Sports Networks have been an ongoing issue — Diamond recently was given the go ahead to emerge from bankruptcy — and the big rights fees that NBA, NHL and MLB teams once received have been cut.
The Wolves reportedly, like Diamond’s other NBA partners, agreed to a 30 to 40 percent reduction in rights fees for this season. As part of the reworked deal by the NBA, Diamond allowed teams the ability to distribute five games to an over-the-air partner.
In addition to the Dec. 21 game, KARE also will have Wolves-Portland at 7 p.m. on Feb. 8 (Saturday); Wolves-San Antonio at 7 p.m. on March 9 (Sunday); Wolves-Utah at 6 p.m. on March 16 (Sunday); and Wolves-Utah on April 13 (Sunday).
Not only will this get the Wolves in front of fans who don’t have cable, satellite or a streaming subscription to FanDuel, but it also will provide the team with a trial run when it comes to ratings for games shown for free. If the five games draw significant ratings, that could signal the opportunity for significant revenue through advertising sales.
One option for the future would be for the Wolves to buy time from an over-the-air station, sell the advertising and retain the revenue. It’s unlikely that KARE could clear a large package of games given it has network commitments as an NBC affiliate, but a station without such an affiliation could be a candidate. Two of the likely landing places could be KSTC (Ch. 45) or FOX9+.